The Legal Regal Impasse

If you’ve missed it, the President is trying to impeach the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. But all those titles are just confusing. What’s really happening is that the King’s brother wanted control over money for the serfs. But those serfs belonged to more provincial lords, as per the Magna Carta as it were. A Judge said so, and for crossing the royal family she was pilloried and the show Parliament insulted and threw fruit at her. Or, to put it another way, Basil Rajapaksa didn’t get what he wanted and so the whole authority of the judiciary has to go. Because they’ve really put things in a bad place.

Right now the Court Of Appeal has rightly quashed the less than Kangaroo trial of the CJ conducted by select boors from Parliament. That sham trial had no procedures, no actual legal points and consisted largely of rumor and grown men acting exceedingly rude.

However, the vote on impeachment is scheduled to go ahead on January 11th. Which means, despite the case against her being thoroughly discredited, Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake will probably still be impeached. Which is a bummer, but not necessarily a surprise.

The Rajapaksas, however, in their willfulness are doing serious damage to the government as a whole. As former ambassador Dayan Jayatilleka said:

Those who rightly decry unfairness in the accusations and indictments of the Sri Lankan authorities by international bodies must not be so hypocritical as to practice blatant unfairness in domestic processes…

Today there is a dangerous disequilibrium between two pillars of the state and the third and a consequent polarization in the polity. If the parliament does not accept the rulings of the court on matters of legality and constitutionality, who then decides on what is legal? How then to avoid a situation in which the very legality of parliament and the legislation that issues from it, are called into question? (mirror.lk)

Right now the Parliament is just doing the President’s bidding. Many of them didn’t even read the initial complaint. In the process they are going now directly against the Judiciary. All because someone in the royal family didn’t get what he wanted. Honestly, the Rajapaksas are like children smashing their toys if they don’t get what they want, except their toys are national airlines and, like, the legal system of Sri Lanka.

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11 Comments

Where is the national out cry and mass protests against this madness? The public response has been sporadic so far at best which is why the Royal family believes they can do what they want. When will our people wake up?

Living in SL is like living in George Orwell’s 1984…you hope the people will wake up and take control but no one cares. People are too scared, too poor or too ignorant to do what needs to be done and that’s just the way our politicians want it. The CJ is most likely corrupt and needs to go but not like this…this is a sham within a sham, kinda like ‘shamception’.

So true. I am having trouble with my neighbors (barking dogs ) but reluctant to go to the police. So, cursing the SOBs and wading it out. Such a disgusting country Sri Lanka. I have PR in Austrlia but don’t want to go to Australia either, cos we are 2nd class citizens there as well. I don’t think most Sri Lankans who live in Australia tell the real situation there. It’s quite pathetic it seems.

Divineguma bill also attempts to take back what is given in 13th amendment apart from what Indi said about Basil having access to funds. However the effect of Divi neguma bill would be felt even among other parts of the country. I remember how Merv the perv was boasting in a tv channel how he can control things when Divi neguma bill is passed. We as a nation suffers a lot from corruption and if we have any hope of recovering from that divi neguma bill should not be passed. It will cripple the country forever.
The root cause of most of the problems in this country is we tend to think in a communal line. During Sirimavo’s period, she started influencing the judiciary. However Sinhala people and their leaders in this country didn’t fight against it because that move was against the Tamils. The result is now we do not have an independent judiciary. The fall of judiciary started at that point. We Sinhalese remained silent because it didn’t affect us, but Tamils. Now see what has happened. Shirani B is not a good person. She herself was an MR stooge. However we should fight for the independence of the country. It is more important than Shiranee B.
You talk about unitary state. I presume you to be a Sinhalese. Tell me what we achieved as a race by having a unitary structure. Why do we need unitary structure? Do you want a bankrupt, corrupted, poor and a mismanaged country with violent uneducated and inept politicians just to maintain a unitary system? Sinhalese people too have started immigrating in large numbers. Because many have understood there is no future here how much we love this country. Isn’t that what we achieved?
Isnt it better if we have a UNITED one country with a well functioning judiciary? Thinking on communal lines has dragged our country down. We Sinhalese has mainly destroyed the country that belonged to Sinhala, tamil, moor, burgher,etc . It is our wrong doing that has brought this status to this country. At least now start using what is inside your head more.

corruption argument is hilarious, does it mean that at provincial level the corruption is less…the communal line of thinking never started within sinhalese, it started by the tamil racist forefathers in 1920s to retain their apartheid privilages under biritish(what ever the sinhalese did, always been reactionary to counter tamil tribalistic demands) ..as i said it is paramount that we need to get rid of the 13th(except for the language provisions), since it is the only hope the tamil tribals have in creating their mythical ghetto..sri lanka should be equal to all, no body should be against creating a just society that treats everybody equals with equal rights, but no way we should agree to give special rights to tamils, just because that was the case under british!

corruption argument is hilarious, does it mean that at provincial level the corruption is less…

I didn’t say corruption is less in provincial level. That is poor understanding of my comment from your side. By this bill Basil would get unlimited power over the funds. UPFA members who are submissive and lackeys of the Rajapakse family too would get that. Haven’t u heard of the term, “power corrupts and absolute power absolutely corrupts.” And every one who is knowledgeable of politics in SL know how corrupted this guy Basil is.

the communal line of thinking never started within sinhalese, it started by the tamil racist forefathers in 1920s to retain their apartheid privilages under biritish(what ever the sinhalese did, always been reactionary to counter tamil tribalistic demands)

Both the Sinhalese and the Tamils are guilty. But most of the damage was done by Sinhala political leaders and their supporters including monks. Sinhala nationalism started much earlier than 1920s. It started during early 1900. If you go through the Sinhala books at that time you can understand the trend. There were separatist elements in the Tamil leaders at that time but as a whole Tamil community was not for separatism. If you want to talk about who started it first u can argue until the world ends. But it really won’t help us or the country. It would be a stupid debate like who came here first, the Tamils or the Sinhalese. But, 1956 language law was brought by Sinhala leaders, the protests against it by Tamil leaders was brought down violently by the Sinhala leaders. The university entrance standardization law was brought by Sinhala leaders. Banda- Chelva, Dudley- Chelva pacts were abandoned by Sinhala leaders. The riots in 1983 were initiated by Sinhalese. The government of this country did not do its duty to protect the tamil civilians in Colombo in 1983. These are the events that were turning points of the history of our country. Now don’t tell me these are just reactions to Tamil’s actions. Even if what u say is true, Sinhalese acts are wrong.
If Tamils are tribal, Sinhalese are tribal too. There is nothing wrong in one having love for his/her language, ethnicity and culture. I have the same for mine. There were no special privileges provided to Tamils by the British. It is just that Tamils utilized the opportunities more than the Sinhalese. There was both a Sinhala and Tamil elite that got benefits because of their service to british. If the Sinhalese didn’t use the opportunity at that time it is their mistake not the tamils’.

..as i said it is paramount that we need to get rid of the 13th(except for the language provisions), since it is the only hope the tamil tribals have in creating their mythical ghetto..

Tamil was made equal to Sinhala language by the 13th amendment. How can you get rid of the 13 without taking back the status given to tamil language? It is shameful that as a country we waited until 1987 to make Tamil which is the mother tongue of many citizens to be made a national language. If you want to get rid of tamil nationalism which u refer to as tamil tribals the best way is to solve their problems. Let them mind their own things in their language in where they live for centuries in one country. Not only that solve many problems of Tamils but also would help the country to run efficiently. Also Tamils’ language problem is not solved at all. I have been to many gov institutions that run their functions in Sinhala. It is almost impossible for anyone to get his work done without knowing Sinhala. That is the reality that requires changes. We need to monitor and take effective actions to make sure language equality is achieved in SL. The politicians who run this country do not care for this country. It is their personal well being that they care most. They try to gain something for them in everything they do. As a result many areas are neglected in this country. And people like you billy boy help them to ruin this country. You are worried about Tamil tribal ghettos then what about Sinhala Buddhist tribal ghettos which even alienate non Buddhist Sinhala ppl.

sri lanka should be equal to all, no body should be against creating a just society that treats everybody equals with equal rights, but no way we should agree to give special rights to tamils, just because that was the case under british!

No one is asking you to give Tamils special rights. They are asking for the rights that every Lankan is entitled to. How can you achieve equality in this country when Tamils have to conduct many of their activities in their neighbors’ language? When Tamils who live in N&E have to ask for everything from the central government before doing anything in the area they live. When Tamils are not even able to sing the national anthem in their language in their own country as equal citizens how can we achieve equality?

But you did NOT answer my question.

Tell me what we achieved as a race by having a unitary structure. Why do we need unitary structure?